*Just like Hayes' lawyers, Komisarjevsky's lawyers signaled in their opening statement that they'd be using the "It was the other guy." defense.

* The first witnesses -- Dr. Petit's nurse, the Bank of America teller and manager and one of the first responding Cheshire police officers -- gave very similar testimony to what they gave the first time around.

* The Petit and Hawke families were in the courtroom in force -- most sitting in the very seats they sat in during the first trial.

*Hordes of reporters were at the New Haven courthouse to chronicle every move of the first day, though it's anyone's guess if this trial will keep the same national attention as the first one.

"This feels like the same trial," one reporter said. And in a lot of ways, it is. Same horrific details. Same suffering family. Same loss.

Except for two big differences: The defendant -- unlike the disheveled Hayes, the much younger Komisarjevsky was dressed in a suit and tie. He listens intently to testimony and engages often with his lawyers. He looks so comfortable at the defense table, that one of the prosecutors once mistook him for a lawyer, though he later said he was kidding.

And Komisarjevsky's defense team. Hayes' lawyers may have loved taking swipes at "blood-thirsty reporters and public," but by comparison, Team Komisarjevsky is much more confrontational. Leading that pack is Attorney Jeremiah Donovan, who started today's trial by taking issue with Petit family supporters wearing pins and offering one of his inflammatory gems I'm dubbing "Donovisms."

While complaining about supporters wearing Petit Family Foundation pins, Donovan dubbed the group: The "Petit Posse."